Don Covay & J. Lemon Blues

This Album Credited To Don Covay And The Jefferson Lemon Blues Band Is Not Only A Great Record On Its Own Terms But It's Sort Of A Black Parallel/precursor To A Few Blues-Rock LPs By White Artists That Sold A Hell Of A Lot More Copies Around The Same Time. On The One Hand It's As Solid A Blues Album As Anyone Associated With R&B Was Making In 1969 And Contains Some Of The Best Guitar-Based Blues On Atlantic This Side Of That One-Off Blind Willie McTell Record That They Did At The End Of The '40s. The Guitar Blues Interspersed With Some Organ-Based Numbers Mixes With Covay's Whooped And Hollered Vocals Like Someone Caught A Performance At Some Roadhouse 20 Miles From Nowhere In Mississippi -- Except That It's Perfectly Recorded Like Someone Sneaked Atlantic Producer Herb Abramson And A Late-'60s Tape Unit Into A Roadhouse 20 Miles From Nowhere. But The Repertory Ranges Wider Than That Description Would Lead One To Believe From Standards Like "Key To The Highway" And "But I Forgive You Blues" To A Brace Of Covay Originals Including The Jaunty "Four Women " The Soulful "Homemade Love" Which Manages To Be Smooth Raw And Cute All In Six Minutes And Two Parts Of "House Of Blue Lights" -- Not The Freddie Slack/Don Raye Song Popularized By The Andrews Sisters Merrill Moore And Chuck Berry But Rather A Mournful Lament Akin Thematically And In Tempo To The Original "House Of The Rising Sun " Only More Intense And Serious. The Organ Mouth Harp And Guitar Textures Achieved On That Seven-Minute Song Ripple And Shimmer As Though Lifted And Slowed Down From The Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man " While "But I Forgive You Blues" Goes Back To '20s And Early-'30s Basics And Is Really Cool With The Guitars Isolated On One Channel So You Can Appreciate The Playing Up Close And Personal . Much Of The Album Sounds Like The Sonic And Spiritual Blueprint For Let It Bleed And Exile On Main Street And Parts Of Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs. Reissued In 2002 By The Sepiatone Label In State-Of-The-Art Sound And Worth Tracking Down At Twice The Price They're Charging Which Is About What A Vinyl Copy Would Cost If You Did Find One . read less